Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flame_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	61	3	9.6005	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34689	A practicall commentary, or an exposition with observations, reasons, and vses upon the first Epistle generall of John by ... John Cotton ...	Cotton, John, 1584-1652.; R. D. (Roger Drake), 1608-1669.; Scott, Chr. (Christopher), fl. 1655.	1658 (1658)	Wing C6452; ESTC R5113	587,691	443

their heat as when a man means to put out the fire he layes one brand from another a signe he means to goe to bed and sleep so when Satan would put out the life and heat of grace in a Family or Town he disjoynts Christians and so they fall into security and grow dead in sins and trespasses all their heat is quite extinguished Therefore the Apostle exhorts us not to forsake the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is Heb. 10.25 2 Pet. 1.21 See that ye love one another with pure hearts fervently Obj. If this heat be alwayes found where life is how comes it to passe that the hearts of Christians are so cold and dead How comes a Christian to be so unprofitable if he digest the Word Doe not Christians meet and afford little warmth and help one to another Luke 24.32 The two disciples hearts burned when Christ talked with them a signe before he came and chafed them up they were cold and dead-hearted Answ True Christians oft-times finde a marvellous coldnesse and benummednesse of heart that they finde little warmth in their breathing in their prayers or conferences and this comes partly from want of supply of new fuell when they walk in their own strength without looking up to Christ for new supply and partly by pouring cold water upon it that is some noysome lusts that put out the grace of God or else the use of outward comforts with wordly hearts these cast cold water on the fire as the fire is put out either by withdrawing the fuell or by casting water on it But yet though this be their fault yet even then when they want chafing and heat there is some striving in them which argues life so much life as in them so much heat As for those two Disciples that went to Emaus though their hearts burned whilest Christ spake yet before Christ came they were talking of Christ and of his sufferings which made them sad then Christ comes and puts life O fools and slow of heart to believe This blew up the sparks in them So much as a Christian hath lost of his heat so much of his life if his warmth be smothered his life is smothered Now this warmth is sometimes exprest in sad looks and pantings and deep sighs and groanings and mourning for his forlorn estate and surely there is life in that for in griefe the heat runs to the heart But worse then this a Christian sometimes vanisheth away in much frothy emptynesse outwardly rejoycing in worldly comforts when there is no life within Peter when he denyed his Master his heart was fill'd with griefe and sorrow and he went out and wept bitterly But what say you to David when he had committed adultery how did he go on from one sin to another He can make Vriah drunk and then kill him and then make no matter of it he is carelesse in all this as if he had quite lost all life and affection to God there was not the least beating of the pulse of a Christian such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a man that knew him not before might have written in his forehead a man forsaken of God without any life of grace in him Where now was Davids life None so far gone as he 't is a question whether he prayed or no all this while as some Christians have so lost themselves as for three years together they have not prayed at all as doubting of any acceptance because they were so sinfull yet there is some habit of grace but hardly one act of life yet still this holds true so much warmth so much life as by the Almighty power of God there may be fire and yet no heat as the fiery furnace though made seven times hotter then ordinary yet God so restrained the act that it did not so much as singe the garments of the three children that were cast into it Dan. 3. So è contra there is a marvellous hellish power in sin so as it will suspend all the acts of grace so as a Christian may expresse no acts of grace but lye as a man in a deep swound without life and motion that can be discerned and yet this you shall finde in a Christian at such times a listlesnesse of his heart to sin that he cannot break out into sin with all his strength and power as he did in his naturall condition and the ground is this because there is still flesh and spirit in him so that as the spirit cannot doe what good it would so the flesh cannot doe that evill it would Gal. 5.17 And when a Christian is most lively yet there is still some faintnesse and weaknesse in him so è contra when grace is most weak and corruption most strong yet he cannot commit sin with all his strength as formerly he hath done but he goes about sin unwillingly not with the full sway that he was wont to doe he goes listlesly about it Try your selves therefore by these signes if thou hast Christ thou hast life if life thou hast warmth and heat look to thy knowledge doth it puffe thee up and not edifie Dost thou magnifie thy selfe by it If it be lively knowledge it is joyned with zeal as Christ revealed himselfe to the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2.18 Thus saith the Son of God whose eyes are like flames of fire writing to the Church of Thyatira that was warm in love and growing up therein he revealed himselfe according to the state of the Church as having eyes like flames of fire as that Church had zeal with her light so that if thou hast a true knowledge thy eyes are like flames of fire what thou knowest thou dost with zeal and fervency of spirit as Peter and John said We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard that is which we have certain knowledge of Acts 4.20 See Jer. 20.9 1. Consider therefore whether thy knowledge be joyned with zeal How dost thou breath dost thou smell a sweet savour in the Word Then there is breath in thy nostrills 2. Dost thou breath warmth in prayer pant and sigh after God In thy conference dost thou expresse life and heat Then thou art a living Christian 3. How dost thou finde thy stomach to the Word dost thou relish it or else art thou ashamed of thy unprofitablenesse Then there is life 4. Dost thou love to be disjoynted from thy Brethren like brands cast one from another Then there is no life Life loves to preserve it selfe if you sit loose one from another all heat and life goes out religion ceaseth there is a bidding farewell to all Christian duties but if you see bone joyn to bone one gather to another then you shall see flesh and sinews will cover them and life will come in Ezek. 37.7 Put brands together and there will be some fire and heat propagated 2. A second property of life Where life is there is some plyablenesse and

have neglected to keep their Conscience clean their judgment is unsound a corrupt Conscience a corrupt Judgement 3 From the disposition of men and aptnesse then to catch the greatest cold when their spirits have been most warmed and heated no man so apt to take cold as they who are very warm and hot so in the days of the Apostles they did not only fill them with Knowledge but warmed the Church with Zeal and Heat zeal towards their Ministers zeal in their liberality they loved not their own lives in respect of Christ now their spirits being so warm they are more subjesh to get cold and distemper every Christian in particular finds it so when he hath been most enlarged at the Word or Prayer ere long he will be more straitned there being a secret pride in the experience of Gods favour and to rest in our selves thinking that we have sufficient grace in our selves when we see our need of Christ we depend only on him but when we are full we depend on our selves and so by sitting loose from Christ we get a great cold we are cold in Prayer Word Sacrament thus it is with the Church when God sheds his Spirit abundantly in the Church they grow secure and depend upon themselves thus we see Josh 1.9 10 11. so that one would have thought that that generation would have been more zealous yet none so Idolatrous till God quickned them by their enemies so in the Apostles times the Church was very forward and zealous a few Generations after their spirits were carried away with errors 4 From the disposition of Satan he hath great rage because the time is short Rev. 12.8 and we shall always finde that the Devil hath imitated God if God have Sacrifices from his people so the Devil from the Pagans so if God set up a Christ Sathan will have an Antichrist set up that may be not only a substitute but an enemy to Christ that as God had won the world by Christ so he would delude the world by Antichrist 5 From the wise and just dealing of God if God reveal more means of knowledge he will use many means of trial he will have them winnowed that so the good may remain as Wheat the Chaffe may be blown away if God give more Tallents he will put them upon more employment and exexercise Vse 1 To teach Christians not to be offended if they finde variety of seducing spirits in these days a man would wonder in such peaceable days when Religion is maintained there should be so many opinions and agitations how comes this about you must know that God never dispenced generally more knowledge since the revelation of Antichrist than now now where there is most knowledge Sathan will be seducing and corrupting their wisdom where there is more wisdome there is more curiosity and pride so much knowledge so much want of truth many times and so putting off the truth men run into several errors and it is just with God seeing they put away a good Conscience and would not give heed to sound Doctrine therefore God gave them up to follow lyes 2 Thes 2. and their longing desire and zeal in former times will end in such a cold that there will be a defect of all warmth and heat and wheresoever you see the truth not held in a good Conscience they run their faith on Rocks some split on a rock of Arminianism some on a rock of Popery so that it must needs be that in these last times many Antichrists must be Vse 2 Since many Antichrists are and will be in these last times let us labour to be so established in the truth that however the times be we may keep our faith and religion Q. How shall we be thus established A. 1. Get contrary spirits to the former give not up your selves to curiosity and vain speculations if the Lord find you humble he will teach you in his ways if when you are warm and hot you have a care that you get not cold 1 Chron. 29.18 Pray to God to keep your hearts always in that frame or at least in such a frame as may befit every days businesse and then whatsoever the times be our hearts and judgements shall be established in the truth but unless God give you a good Conscience with your knowledge you will be soon perverted and therefore I say as Paul to the Ephesians Ephes 2.12 continue in a firm love of the truth as well as in the knowledge of it 1 JOHN 2.19 They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us no doubt they would have continued with us c. THe Apostle Vers 18. had instructed Babes of the coming of Antichrist now in this Verse he first discribes them 1 By their Apostacy they went out from us 2 Their condition before They were not of us he amplifies both the latter he proves by an Argument They were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us The former he amplifies by the reason why God gave them up to Apostacie which was that these Seducers might be made manifest that they were not of us Q. 1. What is meant by this They went out from us A. 1. They departed from their Doctrin in Judgment and from their Fellowship in Practise Acts 2.42 Now these men departed from both they forsook the truth which before they profest 2 Joh. 9. and not in circumstantial points but in such whereby they denyed both the Father and the Son as verse 22. 1 Tim. 1.19 2 In their fellowship they declined from them in communion of Ordinances and mutual help Heb. 10.25 They went out from us from whom who are they from us Apostles and Ministers from us that is from Old men Young men and Children they went out from all the true Members of the Church They were not of us That is they were never true members of our Body they were with us and amongst us but they were never of us 1 Joh. 4.4 5. as the Children of God are in the world yet not of the world their mindes are not on this world their inheritance is not in this world so on the contrary the Children of the Church are in the Church but not of the Church Doct. 1. Some may be in the Church which after do depart from the Church Doct. 2. Such as do depart were never Members of the Church Doct. 3. Such as are Members continue always in the Church Doct. 4. Those that depart manifest themselves not to be of the Church Doct. 5. This departing from the Church is a note of Antichrist Doct. 1. There are some in the Church which may depart from the Church That may leave the Doctrin Fellowship and Practise of the Church Heb. 10.25 2 Thes 2.3 1 Tim. 2.4 Q. How comes it to pass that men in the Church and in some measure affecting the ways of Religion depart from the Church

A. 1. This comes from want of thorow and entire fellowship with the Lord Jesus for though they may have much joy and comfort in the Members of the Church yet it is but a Land-flood all that joy and grace may be dried up unlesse they partake of that Fountain which never fails and as the Lord told Samuel They have not rejected thee but me they have rejected so see you any departing from the Church they departed from Christ and union with him first Dan. 11.34 35. many cleave to him but feignedly Heb. 12.13 when a man haults between falshood and truth or God and his lusts he will be turned out of the way 2 From the stumbling-blocks they meet with in 1 The Church first persecution Matth. 13.21 that makes some offended 2 Hard Doctrin Joh. 16.66 the Doctrin of Purity seems harsh Doctrin to them so the Doctrin of Predestination offends some 3 There fall out some admonitions or reproofs to be dispenced to the Members of the Church now if they come with proud unmortified spirits they will be offended at them and fly back again this was the cause of Simon Magus his Apostacy when Peter reproved him sharply he could not brook it but fell off and set up a false Doctrin and lying miracles to subvert the Apostles Doctrin some depart from others because they think themselves more holy than others Isa 65.5 either they give offence to others or others to them Vse Shews us our duty not to rest our selves satisfied in that we are Members of the Church we may live in the Church and partake of the ordinances yet after fall off therefore be sure that you give up your selves first to the Lord and then to the Church otherwise keeping any pride or covetousnesse in our hearts it will make us fall off pride will make us take offence at others and others at us and covetousnesse will make us fall off when we meet with persecution and losse of goods and liberty for Christ therefore come with humble and mortified hearts and give up your selves to Christ and then you shall not easily give offence to others and will be content to part with any thing for Christ and so will continue Members of the Church Doct. 2 Such as depart from the Church were never Members of the Church They were not of us that is of the Apostles nor of us that is of such whose sins are forgiven them either old men or young or Children Q. What is the Church or who are the Church 1 The Church is called a company of Saints because they are holy in heart and practice 1 Cor. 14 13. 1 Cor. 1.2 2 The Church is called an elect people 3 They that are indeed of the Church are such as shall be saved Acts 2 ult as all those that were in Noahs Ark were saved so all those that are true Members of the Church Grounds 1 From the near fellowship such have with the Catholique Church and so certainly are of the number of the first born written in heaven Heb. 12.23 therefore Christ saith all his sheep hear his voice Joh. 10.2 3 4.16.27 28. and none shall pluck them out of his hand Those that are truly Members of the particular Church are likewise Members of the Catholique my finger which is a part of my hand is a part of my whole body 2 From the fellowship such have with the head Christ all the true Members receive nourishment from the head Col. 2.18 19. therefore they not holding to the head fall into vain speculations therefore those that depart from the head fall from the Church Ephes 4.15 16. and being knit to the head they are joyned with such bands of the spirit and bands of ordinances that they all partake of one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 so 1 Cor. 12.13 1 Cor. 10.6 7. and so in all their prayers they pray for the whole Church Our Father thy Will be done of us we have a tender care of all the Church knit together in one Love one Faith one Hope one Baptisme so that those that are truly knit cannot fall off Vse 1 To reprove an Error of the Romish Church that do maintain that wicked men may be true Members of the Church but we say that those that fall off were never true Members of the Church and yet they hold that many fall off and yet were true Members but they might indeed depart from their Church but never from any true Church if they do depart from the Church they were never true Members of the Church they were not of Christs sheep for he will keep them that none of them shall fall off We say therefore that such were not true Members but ill humors and superfluous excrements of the body and therefore no wonder though they fell off But you will say some there are that continue faithfull friends to the Church and never fall off from them are there not some that are ornaments and maintainers and supporters of the Church yet have no truth of Grace in their hearts are not they Members of the Church They have the place of Members but are not true Members a glasse eye may be an ornament to the body and a wooden Legg a support to the body yet are no true Members so such may be ornaments and supporters of the Church yet no true Members but as a glasse eye or a wooden legge these though they cleave to the body yet they are not joyned by nerves and sinews neither animated by the head so these are not tyed to the Church by the spirit of God or bond of Faith and Love but some external ligaments as honour or profit in the Church Vse 2 It may teach us what to judge of such men as have been sometimes very forward and zealous Professors but afterwards they sit loose from Religion and fall off from the Saints and grow enemies to the Church they were never true Members of the Church Stella cadens nunquam stella cometa fuit never any Star fell the Church is compared to Heaven Christians to Stars when we think we see a Star fall it is no Star but a meteor drawn up by the heat of the Sun which when the heat of the Sun is withdrawn falsl so if you see any Stars fall from the Church they were some sluggish meteors that by the heat of Gods ordinances were raised up and inflamed but after the heat was a little dissolved they fell away if any fall they were never any true Stars in heaven but blazing meteors Vse 3 It may teach us never to rest in any fellowship or society of the Church till we are knit by the spirit to God and Christ so that every ordinance knits you nearer to Christ and to his Members and every conference quickens your affection to the Church and theirs to you come not therefore to the Fellowship of the Church for custome or credit or to satisfie friends these are but as glasse eyes and woden leggs